


The Secret of Alternia Hollow

by Panphae



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Humanstuck, Multi, Mystery, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:21:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24206632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Panphae/pseuds/Panphae
Summary: Eridan’s problems hadn’t started until the day the history teacher gave his class the family tree assignment. Or at least- most of his problems. If it wasn’t for his damn curiosity he wouldn’t be in a basement tied to the guy he hated and his off-again on-again friend with horrible anger issues. He thought back, trying to remember how everything had gotten to this point.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	1. Lets Start at the Very Beginning

It was a boring Thursday afternoon near the beginning of October when Mr Ampora, the history teacher at Eridan’s school, had given the class an assignment to research their family histories and do a family tree based off of it. Mr Ampora, who had been in the Navy until an unfortunate incident saw him injured and discharged, was seen as harsh in his teaching but kind any other time. Students would go to him if bullied or if they were having incidents at home due to his intimidating nature and knack of drawing respect without people knowing anything about him. It didn’t help that Mr Ampora was also practically the dictionary definition of a DILF. One student, when given the assignment, had complained that it was work more suited to a 7th grader than a senior, but a scowl had gotten them to shut up. 

Eridan knew why he was doing it; they had exams that year. Important exams. Despite looking mean and acting like a Snape-wannabe his dad was very soft, and had wanted to start them off with something simple to get them in the groove for the end of the year. He had a habit of teaching things that would be on the exams too, so something told him there’d be a question about family trees, and he made a mental note to put that in his revision list. 

He’d been a very small kid when he first got to high school; that skinny one people thought would either change completely or not change at all. Eridan had been the former, growing into a strapping young boy with wide shoulders and lean muscle he’d gained from his years of being on the school swim team with his once best friend, Feferi Peixes. He had narrow hips and a sharp jaw, just like his brother and father, the stature of a prince he was often told. Eridan had bright ginger hair, which matched the slight Scottish hint to his trained accent, that he often dyed dark brown to match the rest of his dark and broody aesthetic. He used to be way too into wizards and capes, even wearing one, but now he had calmed down and sported a simple violet sweater over a navy blue shirt, which he wore with black and navy pinstriped slacks, dark brown brogue shoes, and a pair of thick framed glasses that contrasted against his porcelain white skin and the freckles dappled across his nose and cheeks. 

It was after school when he started working on the project, heading to the town’s library instead of the school’s library in hope of having more peace and quiet than he would at home, already having asked his dad the questions he needed like how long their family had been here and where they’d been before that. He’d always found it funny that his brother had his father’s middle name, some sort of family name he guessed that his old fashioned father wanted to keep alive. There wasn’t much else he could get other than birthdays and birthplaces, putting himself and his brother Cronus on the tree first then his dad, before setting it aside and getting on with some homework that needed actual research. Barely more than ten minutes and he was disturbed by the cheerful and familiar face of his old crush and best friend turned average friend, Feferi, dropping her bag and sitting beside him. 

Feferi was, to put it simply, brilliant. He didn’t love her romantically any more since it had been at least three years now, but she was smart, funny, and pretty to boot. She had skin the colour of dark chocolate and bright honey eyes, a stark contrast to his aqua blue, and delicate fingers that he knew from experience could pack a hell of a punch. Her face was heart shaped, and her hair fell in dark coils to her waist, framing her cheeks which constantly held a cheerful smile. She’d switched out pink oval-framed glasses for contacts in the summer of freshman year, meaning her whole face was visible now, and though she was a little chubby in the stomach, face, and legs he had never seen anyone able to put her down for her choice in tank tops and miniskirts. She wore knee length leggings under them of course, but that was because she enjoyed bouncing about and hated the chafing that came with acting as bubbly as her personality. 

“Whatcha got there?” She asked the minute her butt his the stiff wooden seat, tilting her head and leaning her body up to see the sheet of paper that had his family tree on. 

“History assignment.” He answered simply, “Dad had us do a family tree.” He pushed the paper over for her to look at it, so she picked it up carefully, knowing how he was with creases in his work. 

“Huh- Your brother and dad share a name. That’s cool- My mom is called Meenah too.” 

Eridan nodded along deafly, glancing up briefly then going back to his essay for English. Meenah was Feferi’s sister, and now mother apparently, which was why she’d said ‘too’. Meenah was.. a bitch- to put it lightly. Eridan didn’t like her. She was the complete opposite of Feferi; thin and snarky, hair braided tight to her head but with two stupidly long braids that came out the back near her neck and reached down to her ankles. She was a punk, and always wore cropped tops and ripped jeans with far too many belts, which didn’t suit her tear drop shaped librarian glasses at all. She was also really mean to his brother, which while he deserved it wasn’t really called for most of the time. 

“I also heard Terezi’s sister is named after her mom too-” This gained his attention, making him look up properly. He wasn’t sure why he found it interesting, maybe some sort of plot bunny, but he couldn’t help but listen.

“Huh- you don’t say. Isn’t Gamzee’s dad called Kurloz too?”

Feferi paused, staring at him a moment, before sliding the sheet back to him with a little sigh. “You’re going to look into this aren’t you?”

“Two is funny. Three is a coincidence. But four from a group of 12 is a _pattern_ , Fef. I’m looking into this.”

With a shake of her head, Feferi got out her books for biology and started on some of her own work, Eridan’s mind drifting as he tried to write the rest of his essay, to how he would bring this up to the rest of their friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo! This is the first time I've posted on AO3 so forgive me _but_ I had an idea! and so I'm gonna do it. The first chapter is hella short to help ease people into it but they will get longer as my confidence and motivation increases. Hope you enjoy ^^


	2. Something Fishy Is Going On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eridan spends the day quizzing his friends on their families to see if his assumption is true, only for something creepy to come to light

The next day at school Eridan had a little checklist on his phone of people to talk to, already having noted down the people Feferi and he had mentioned the day earlier. Terezi, Gamzee, him, and Feferi had been checked off, but he should double check with the other two just in case. 

First he had French, which was the only lesson he shared with Aradia, the weird girl of the group that he honestly understood nothing about. Teachers thought she was a goody two shoes, bullies saw her as a chaotic force of nature, her friends saw her as pretty but chill, and Eridan just… didn’t know what to think of her. She onced asked him if he ever wanted to break the mold and just go apeshit, to which he’d stayed silent in shock until she’d smiled sweetly and walked away. 

Rounding the corner and entering the classroom he saw her almost immediately, sitting on her desk instead of at it talking to another friend as they all waited for the teacher to arrive. She was wide and pear-shaped, but a huggable shape, with chubby arms and legs to contrast her oval shaped face. Her and her family were all Japanese, which he knew because she said so, so her skin was almost as light as his, but with a golden tint rather than the ghostly pink his had; she was in many ways a goth, except in attitude, vibes black from head to toe with hair falling in waves to her knees. He remembered helping her dye it in junior year, red streaks from the roots to half way down. It had been fun, and he’d gotten to know her a little better, which he surprisingly didn’t regret. If his emotions had been slightly stronger he probably would have asked her out. 

Eridan started to approach Aradia; today she was wearing a black dress that reached two thirds of the way down her thighs with white collar and cuffs and two silver buttons under the part in the collar; it reminded him a lot of Wednesday Adaams, especially with the pure white tights and the black, shiny, leather mary jane shoes that looked like doll shoes. She’d always been good with makeup, he thought, and even when the eyeliner was heavy like it was now her wings were fantastic and it still looked good. She was the one who taught him how to do make up, which he happened to have started wearing every day, even now. Aradia had heavy but perfectly shaped eyebrows, despite her insistence they weren’t plucked or groomed in any way, and her lips were painted black to match the outfit and her midnight black hair, the bottom lip matte and the top lip shiny with a little glitter. Accessory-wise, she had in silver skull studs too big for her lobes and a flower crown of black roses with small silver spikes between them. He still thought she was gorgeous, but chalked it up to his hormones and the **_gasp_** fact her knees were showing. 

She turned to face him almost as soon as he was a foot away, placing a hand under her chin, and he could see a couple silver rings on her fingers to contrast his gold ones. 

“Hey Eridan. What’s got you over here? Usually you go straight to your seat.” He liked how she was careful with her body language and explained herself without explaining herself, it made him feel less in the spotlight. 

“I’m curious about something and wanted to ask you a question.” He answered truthfully, having a weird vibe that told him she could see right through anyone’s lies. 

“Oh? Well ask away. Don’t keep me waiting.” She answered with a little tilt of her head. 

“Well I wanted to know if your mum had the same name as your sister.” 

That seemed to catch her off guard. It was like she didn’t expect it, and certainly not with the answer she had to give. “Well I- Yes, she does. Why?” 

“I noticed a bunch of us had siblings named after our parents so I wanted to find out how many. Fef and I have it too.” 

“Oh. Well that makes sense.” Her shocked frown turned into that familiar yet still slightly too wide smile. “If it helps I know that Tavros does too. His dad was called Rufioh back when we were little but changed it to Samuel for some reason.” 

That was something he hadn’t considered. Parents could have name changes too-

“Well thanks- he’s actually the only person I don’t share a class with so that’s super helpful.” 

“No problem! Make sure you come back to me with the results. You got me all curious now too.” 

Eridan smiled, giving her a small nod and heading back to his seat. He made a little note in his phone notepad about Aradia and Tavros’ parents before the teacher came in, looking frazzled, and the lesson began.

~~~~~~ 

Class wasn’t that interesting, but he now had 15 minutes to get to the next classroom and ask Sollux and Gamzee before they had a chance to ignore him. Ugh.. Sollux. They weren’t enemies but they weren’t exactly friends. He’d always hated the Captor, but after a huge argument over Feferi several years ago that had lead to her refusing to talk to either of them until they made up, they had agreed to at least be civil so would sometimes message each other about lessons, asking when things were due of if they’d got something right or wrong. They’d insult each other ‘playfully’ sometimes, but, at least on Eridan’s end, the lack of fighting had made him start to tolerate Sollux a bit. Maybe even like- he’d never say that out loud though.

He got to the classroom before it was even unlocked, spotting Sollux right outside the door and trying to explain something to Gamzee that the stoner just wasn’t taking in, and Sollux’s irritation entertained Eridan greatly. He approached the two, smug hint of a smile turning neutral again. 

“Can I ask you two a question?”

“I dunno, can you fish breath?” Sollux retorted, not skipping a beat with that stupid lisp of his. 

“That was one time. And I shouldn’t have asked- you probably have too low an IQ to string together a long enough sentence.”

Sollux was about to retort, but Gamzee beat him to the punch. “What’s your question little man?”

Gamzee was a very tall guy. The tallest in the grade in fact because he was 6”7 and impossibly gangly- there was a rumour he could do a handstand, bend over backwards and curl his back around so he could touch the back of his knees to his face. _That was some very impressive flexibility…_ Okay, now he really was blaming his hormones. Like Feferi, Gamzee was dark skinned, but his skin tone was darker than hers by quite a bit and his hair he’d let frizz out into a tangled afro rather than cutting it or styling it. It reached his shoulders, and hid a good portion of his face, barely showing those brown eyes so dark they looked black. He had bags under those eyes and a chiselled jaw, much more masculine than his own, and his colourful clothes almost hung off him like a toga. From what he could see, today Gamzee was sporting a loose tie dye shirt in all colours of the rainbow with the strap of a black binder peaking out thanks to the neckline being so big it fell off one shoulder, and a pair of baggy sweatpants with a different pattern on each leg; one leg was rainbow smiley faces, and the other was a pattern of blue circles. He wore purple slip on shoes and both his arms and hands were covered in many tiny scars, as if he had a rather ambitious kitten.

Sollux on the other hand was more weedy than gangly, Gamzee’s limbs being a bit too long for his body but Sollux’s being proportionate to the beanpole he was. He and Gam were the only people in the grade taller than Eridan was, Sollux reaching a giant but still slightly smaller 6”3 which felt like it practically towered over Eridan’s 6”1, even if it didn’t really. He had messy, dark brown hair that stuck out at odd angles, complete with messy sideburns that looked scraggly and scratchy just like the wispy hairs on his chin and upper lip that hadn't quite come in yet. The hair was slightly greasy, but dry at the same time, as if he'd neglected to wash it but used dry shampoo spray to try and make it seem like he put some effort into his appearance. In Eridan's opinion, he'd failed. Miserably. One thing he did find pretty about Sollux, however, was his eyes; one was a golden brown and the other was bright baby blue, which he had found out was known as heterochromia. He also had vitiligo, one tone being a peachy pink and the other being the whitest, pastiest thing he'd ever seen- and he'd seen his own face. Unfortunately his eyes were hidden behind stupid two-tone glasses, one lens red and the other blue, which he was sure were not perscription. Today he'd chosen to wear a yellow t-shirt under a red and blue plaid shirt, with khaki cargo pants that had far too many pockets, and a pair of custom converse where one was black with white details and one was white with black details. His backpack was minecraft themed because he was a walking meme, and had a pair of headphones hanging around his neck with one side red, one blue, and the rest of it completely black. He had two wristbands two, a black on the left and a white on the right; he really took this duality thing to a whole new level. Though with the chance of having both vitiligo and heterochromia being so slim he wasn't surprised.

“Do your parents have the same names as your older brothers?” Eridan asked, hoping they’d give a truthful answer. 

“Oh yeah, brother. Kurloz was all up and named right after my dad but he has people call him by his middle name instead.” 

“Why do you want to know?” 

Of course Sollux was going to be the tricky one. 

“I had a question and Fef told me to ask around to get the answer” He had him now. Sollux still liked Fef on a platonic level, them having broken up years ago, but he liked her enough to do things for her and this technically counted. 

“Tch- whatever, Ampora. My dad’s name is Simon so no.”

“Has he ever had a name change?”

“What kind of- no. Never.”

“Alright. That’s all I needed-” Eridan made a note in his phone along with everything else. Feferi, Aradia, Himself, and Gamzee were all yeses, Sollux was a no, and Tavros was a yes but his dad changed his name after. Interesting. 

Sollux was about to open his mouth again to start something, if the look on his face was anything to go by, but the teacher arrived and the mounting number of students started to filter into the math classroom. It’d have to wait until later.

~~~~~~ 

Math had to be one of the stupidest of all his classes. Okay, sure it was advanced- and he easily kept up with the work.. But he had to sit between the over-the-top intelligence that was Sollux Fucking Captor and the constantly doped up idiot that was Gamzee Makara. Everyone else he could stand except those two. Luckily it was over quickly and it just so happened to be lunch afterwards, which he always enjoyed.

Eridan made his way outside to one of the picnic benches in the tarmac area of the campus, joining Feferi who was already there and chatting cheerfully with Aradia and Nepeta. No doubt Equius wasn’t far behind, and with Sollux not being right behind him he guessed that he had gone to get lunch, because he always ate with Feferi - even after they split. Eridan sat down silently to the right of Feferi, who was in the middle of the bench on one side with Nep across from her and Aradia across from him. He took out the container from his bag and opened it up. He had a nifty little shrimp salad, crunching down on some of the vegetables as he finally tuned in to the conversation. The three were talking about some youtube blogger that he’d vaguely heard the name of before, though kept to listening instead of joining in. His eyes drifted over the girls; Fef was smiling brightly, chattering away but giving the others openings to input opinions while Aradia was chiming in with odd facts now and again. For someone so dark she smiled an awful lot and was weirdly cheerful; not that he minded- her smile was very pretty. 

His eyes drifted over to Nepeta when she suddenly jumped up in her seat, kneeling on the wood instead of sitting. She was a very excitable girl, tiny but feral in his opinion, but she was kind of fun to watch and be around. He didn’t interact with her much other than the few times they’d ran into each other at cosplay conventions, but she seemed nice enough. Bit of a cat obsession though. 

Nepeta was small and petite, about 5’2 but Eridan wasn’t fooled so easily- he’d seen her in the town’s gym. She was toned, probably more than several guys at their school, though he wasn’t surprised given that Equius was her best friend. She could probably bench Karkat if she wanted to.. but it was easy to miss because of how she always wore a long, oversized, olive green coat that flopped over her hands and dragged along the ground a little. Under the coat she always wore khaki shorts and a black t-shirt, along with kneesocks that always had one falling down, not that the colourful band aids always on her knees helped them stay up. She completed the look with indigo blue converse, a beanie of the same colour with cat ears, and matching fingerless gloves that could be turned into mittens. Nepeta herself had olive skin and bright green eyes, accompanied by ginger-auburn hair that fell to her chin and partially over her eyes, excluding two long strands at the front in front of her ears that went a few inches past the rest. She had freckles all over her face and just like now, always sat on seats by squatting unless she was in class. 

Eridan’s attention was caught by the arrival of the other two guys that usually joined them, Sollux and Equius. Sollux sat on the other side of Feferi, across from Equius, who had sat down next to Nepeta. 

Now Equius- Equius was the kind of guy that made Eridan torn. He was awkward and nervous, but also kind of rude to some people and reverent of others, he had the body of a god with biceps and muscles Eridan had only seen in movies after an unhealthy amount of dehydration in actors, but he also sweated more than was normal, and seemed to sweat whenever he got nervous, which was about 80% of the time. He wasn’t overly muscled though, which also made him torn because it added to the pro list of things, though he supposed if anything Equius did make good eye candy- not to objectify him or anything. It was people like Equius and Tavros that made him start questioning if he really was straight in the first place, and a stupid party dare from early March for Fef’s birthday that made him question his gender identity, though that was a moment he had yet to live down and a process that he was still going through so masculine would do for now. 

Back to Equius though; he was almost as tall as Eridan, reaching an exact 6ft, and had dark skin and a square shaped face. He had perfectly straight hair that was dark brown and reached just below his shoulders which Eridan had seen tied back while he was working out. Through puberty he and Sollux had had very greasy hair, most likely from sweat for him and lack of hygiene for Sollux, but as Seniors they had luckily sorted that out. It was much better like this. Equius’ hair was down at the moment, Nepeta reaching up to tuck it out the way for him so it didn’t get in his food, only for her to get up and start pulling it back into a ponytail for him. Eridan used to think they were dating but anyone with eyes could see now that it was purely platonic- the kind of relation Eridan once had with Feferi that seemed to break once he had that old crush on her. Equius had a braid on the left side of his head that began at his temple and curved behind his ear, also pulled into the ponytail with the rest of his hair. 

As Eridan stabbed at his food he noted that Equius was wearing the usual black tank top that he always did along with grey gym shorts and those stupid knee high black sports socks that never seemed to fall down, and navy blue sneakers. Seriously- how did those socks stay up?? Were his calves really that sculpted? Could calves even _be_ sculpted? 

Eridan found himself getting curious, so pulled out his phone to do a quick google search as he ate, blinking softly when Aradia prodded his leg with her foot under the table. 

“Huh?”

“So??”

“Soooo..?”

She gave an exasperated sigh. “How's the questioning going!”

Feferi grinned, chiming in and away from her conversation with Sollux and Nepeta. “Yeah I haven’t heard about it since last night! How’s it going?” 

“Oh uh- I’ve got you two, Gam, Sol, myself, and Tavros now- Half way done.”

“What are you getting?” This time it was Equius that butted in, voice deep and rumbly unlike the nasally voice of Sollux and the slight unintentional growl in Gamzee’s voice. 

“It’s uh- this thing that occurred to me that I thought was weird. I’m just asking everyone if their older sibling is named after one of their parents. Or parent- I was going to ask you two in class but uh,, I guess I can ask you now.”

Equius gave a single nod in understanding, going back to his food as Nepeta started playing with his silky hair, running her fingers through it. He didn’t seem to mind. “My father is named Horuss, yes. Nepeta?”

“Yes, Equius?” She asked, finally zoning into the conversation, a small hint of a lisp in her voice that most likely came from the cleft lip she had in the middle of her top lip. She shared that feature with her mother and sister. 

Eridan didn’t like all this attention being on him.

“Eridan wants to know if your mother is named Meulin too.”

“Oh! Yeah it is but she goes by the nickname Didi usually. Says it’s from highschool.” 

Eridan nodded slowly. That made 8 of 12 people asked, and 7 of them were definite yeses, 1 was a definite no, and 5 of those 7 had people changing names or going by other names? Something was going on here. 

“What’s up?” Aradia asked out of nowhere, Eridan looking up. “You’re frowning.”

“Oh. Uhm.. It’s just the numbers. I’ve asked 8 people so far and 7 were all yes..” 

“Oo spooky~”

“Yeah but 5 of those 7 changed their names or go by something different. It feels a little.. off-” 

Sollux’s eyes darted over to the group, then back to his phone.

“Woah that is really weird!” Nepeta chirped. 

“Yeah,” Feferi agreed. “I can see why it feels suspicious but it’s probably nothing, y’know?” 

Eridan frowned. She was brushing his feelings off again.  
“It still feels weird. But I guess I’ll get answers from the other four first.”

Just as Feferi opened her mouth to speak again, the bell for the end of lunch went, meaning they had about 5 minutes to get to class before the teacher threw a fit. 

Feferi, Eridan, and Equius all bid goodbye to the rest of the group, having the same class so deciding to walk together while the others scurried off to their own lessons. Equius could feel the tension and Eridan knew that, though Feferi seemed completely oblivious to his current emotions, just like usual. It didn’t take long to get to class, however, where they sat down and began to copy down information that Mr Keirnan was writing on the board.

~~~~~~ 

The class passed in sleepy silence; Keirnan had never been a good teacher. Eridan said goodbye to Fef and Equius and headed off to the drama department where his theatre class was. He shared that class with Nepeta, Vriska, and Kanaya, all of whom did different things because there wasn’t enough of a budget to have separate classes. Nepeta worked on prop design, loving the arts and crafts aspect and how materials felt between her fingers, while Kanaya did her work on costume design, a few of which made it into final productions and that she even helped make herself. And then.. Vriska. Man he hated Vriska. She was the reason Tavros had to have prosthetic legs and even then she had the audacity to say he was just weak and she was helping him instead of apologising like a normal person. He really hated Vriska.

She was thin and scrawny, almost like Sollux except she wasn’t nearly as tall, only being about 5’8, and her limbs were proportionate rather than too long for her body like Sollux’s were. She was a scrappy girl, bright blond hair messy and scratchy from years of mistreatment from various hair dying adventures such as ginger, black, and blue, the last of which she was still sporting because the tips of her fringe were still that colour. She’d been in an accident when she was younger, leading to her arm being severed and amputated at the shoulder, meaning now she had a prosthetic arm on her right side. Well- right to others, left to her. It was state of the art, made by the Zahhak corporation, meaning it functioned almost as well as an actual arm. She always wore the same blue tube tank top that reached from her cleavage to a few inches under her bust, a rule she got around with the school by wearing an open black button down shirt over the top of it so she didn’t look nearly as indecent, completing the look with black skinny jeans that hung off her hips, and a bright red belt that contrasted greatly against the blue suede ankle boots she wore. Her makeup was always bright and bold; vivid blue lipstick to match her eyes and heavy winged eyeliner. Eridan hated that it looked good. She didn’t deserve a face like that. She also happened to be blind in one eye, on the same side as the missing arm, due to her own pet tarantula biting her when she was 13, so that lens on her glasses was blacked out and the other wasn’t. Now Eridan wouldn’t say someone deserved all those horrible things to happen to them.. but he wouldn’t deny that it was probably karma catching up with her that had caused all these mishaps. 

Kanaya on the other hand had a thin hourglass shape, probably because of the waist trainer she wore underneath all her dresses; he only knew this because he was the one to buy her it and the underwear that meant she wouldn’t have to tuck when she was first scared about coming out to her mother and sister. Luckily they were as accepting as any family could be. She always wore long skirts and sleeves; today it was a long red skirt that started half way up her waist and draped elegantly all the way to the floor, covering her black ballet pumps, and into it was tucked a form fitting black long sleeved shirt that had a high collar going half way up her neck. Over the top of that shirt she wore another jade green shirt, but this one was baggy and hung off both shoulders, though was still tucked into the skirt. Kanaya was one of the people that had taught him about makeup, so it was obvious that she’d be good at it too, shown by the natural hues she applied to her dark skin that added highlights and a slight blush, complimenting the bold black lipstick, green eyeshadow, and winged eyeliner very nicely. He’d only seen her hair twice due to her wearing a beautiful silk hijab most of the time that her girlfriend Rose had given her for her birthday; there was even a small butterfly pin that held it in place against her head. He did, however, know that her hair was wavy and reached just past her chin, much like his own when he kept it down and unstyled. She acted much like a mother to all of their group, mostly to Vantas though, Eridan’s on-again-off-again friend who seemed to have a bit of an anger problem. 

Ha, anger problem. What an understatement. 

As Eridan neared the theatre classroom he could hear the voices from inside; Nepeta’s small chittering and Vriska’s high pitched cackles, which he saw were the result of her taking center stage when he finally pushed open the door. Kanaya was sitting at one of the tables, listening to Nepeta ramble on while she sketched out new dress designs, though Eridan knew their next show was Macbeth so elegant off-the-shoulder designs like that were more likely more ideas for herself or requests from Vriska that she’d criticise into deletion. Vriska was the first to see Eridan, sending him a half sneer half smirk in her standard greeting. 

“Heeeeeeeey Ampora. Someone’s late!” 

He wasn’t late. The sound of Vriska’s shrill voice made Nepeta and Kanaya look up from what they were doing, looking over to him. There were two tables, one was normal with normal seats, but the other was low to the ground and had cushions all around it instead of chairs; the two were sitting at the low one, Nepeta with her legs crossed and Kanaya with her legs to the side like she was in some kind of elegant painting. Eridan ignored Vriska and walked over to the two.

“Hello Eridan. Nepeta tells me you’re doing some research on your classmates.” 

“Oh- Uh. Well, I guess you could say that.” The way Kanaya said research made it sound weird. “I just wanted to ask if your mother and sister have the same name- if that isn’t prying too much.” Eridan greatly respected Kanaya, so always made sure he wasn’t asking too much. 

“Oh. Nep said it would be something like that. Yes, they do.” 

Eridan nodded, pulling out his phone to make a note of her answer. “Thank you. That’s very helpful. 

Kanaya gave him a sweet smile then glanced over to Vriska, who was now marching herself over to the small group. 

“What are you three talking about over here?”

“Does your sister have the same name as your mother?”

She looked taken aback. “What? Why would you want to know a thing like that!?”

Ugh.. She was too loud. “He’s trying to prove a point.” Kanaya answered for him. 

“A point, huh? Well I guess then I’ll tell you. But you owe me.” 

“I owe you nothing”

“Then I guess you won’t be finding out.”

“Fine. I’ll go ask Aranea.”

“You really want to risk that?” Vriska gave another cackle, which only strengthened Eridan’s resolve and spite. 

“Yes.”

There was a small pause in the group, as if Vriska was trying to decide what she wanted to do and the rest were waiting. 

“Yes. She does. But she usually goes by her nickname Minnie.” Vriska finally answered, folding her arms over her chest with a sneer.

“Minnie??” Eridan blinked.

“Yes. Minnie. It comes from her stage name- Spinneret Mindfang.”

“Isn’t that the name of that spider themed pirate from the circus?”

“It’s not a circus! It’s a serious acting job!!” With that Vriska turned on her heel and stormed off, Eridan barely containing a smirk. 

Eridan made another note in his phone about that, frowning as he did. That meant only Karkat and Terezi were left, and they were both in his debate club after school, so he wouldn’t have to worry for a while. Honestly, he was more than a little weirded out now. This was downright suspicious! 

A loud series of claps came from the door as the theatre teacher came in, signalling them to all get in their places, so Eridan left his bag with Kanaya and Nepeta and went up on stage to join the other cast members. They were being given their roles today and Eridan had tried his best to be Macduff, the hero of the story. He knew Vriska would get Lady Macbeth because the teacher tended to give roles similar to the personalities of the kids she thought couldn’t act, and Lady Macbeth? Definitely similar to Vriska. And Vriska could not act. 

Eridan ended up being assigned Banquo, Macbeth’s friend who later would be murdered and become a ghost- be he was nothing like Banquo, so he took it as a compliment. Death scenes were hard to pull off! 

They were 5 minutes into being handed out the script book to read through thoroughly when Vriska started causing trouble, getting at Eridan and winding him up to no end until he couldn’t resist anymore and shoved her away from him, only for her to shove him right back, and a small fight to break out after he tried to get her away from him again

~~~~~~ 

Eridan made his way out of the nurses office with a wet paper towel pressed to his lip, making his way to debate club in a sour mood. The teacher had seen most of what happened, including a moment where he went to walk away and Vriska yanked his scarf, so sent them both to the principal with a note. They had both gotten detention because the headmaster was a dunce, but it wasn’t until monday so Eridan was going to get out of it.

He entered the classroom where debate took place, tidying up his hair and throwing the paper towel in the trash as he passed it he could still taste metal. He plonked down in the seat beside his on-again off-again friend, Karkat, who was already arguing with Terezi over some stupid law that made no sense. 

Karkat was a short and chubby guy who always wore thick sweaters or hoodies even in the summer, along with sweat pants and converse. The sweaters and hoodies varied in colour and pattern but everything else was always black, including the messy mop of hair that Eridan helped him maintain the dying of, and that always stuck up in every direction. The Vantas family was Hispanic, and Karkat had warm copper skin with dark freckles speckled across his cheeks, and eyes so deep they looked black, iris barely distinguishable from the pupil. He was very loud and very angry, but Eridan supposed that starting HRT and having to start a second puberty at 17 would make anyone crabby. He could stand Karkat, who always had bags under his eyes, and though they would argue quite a bit they always made up in the end. 

Terezi on the other hand was loud and annoying, though his opinions on her were mostly neutral. She was a walking meme; she wore t-shirts under ridiculously patterned shirts, along with shorts and always socks with crocs. Today was red crocs with teal socks, and a teal t-shirt and black shorts with a white shirt open over the top that was covered in a variety of rainbow dragons. No one could fault her on her style, considering she was blind, but her accuracy in guessing the world around her was so eerie it almost felt like she wasn’t blind at all. She claimed she could taste colours, and honestly he wouldn’t be surprised if that turned out to be true. She also had a walking cane, which was mostly silver but with a red dragon head on top of the handle. Terezi, like him, was pasty as all hell; the difference was that the Amporas had grey undertones and looked like ghosts while the Pyropes had pink undertones and looked more alive with every passing second. The bright ginger hair and red tinted glasses helped, and though he had never seen her eyes he was told they looked cloudy white. 

Karkat glanced over out the corner of his eye to check that it was Eridan who had sat beside them and not some stranger, only to stop mid rant with Terezi to stare at his slightly bruised cheek and busted lip, which luckily was no longer bleeding. 

“...Vriska?”

“Vriska.” Eridan confirmed, making Terezi turn towards them both. 

“Did Vrissy beat you up again, Ampora?” She teased in that high pitched nasally voice of hers. In contrast, Karkat’s pitch was around the middle of the spectrum, and sounded more gravelly. 

“She did _not_ beat me up.”

“Why do you sound so pissy then?”

“Because I got detention for defending myself.”

Terezi paused, that grin still ever present on her face. Did she ever not smile?

“So rumour has it you’re asking us all a question” Karkat interjected, folding his arms over his chest. 

Eridan was taken aback. “Word sure spreads quickly.. Who told you?”

“Kanaya texted me.”

“Right.” Eridan nodded. Figures. They were never that far out of contact. “Well yeah I do have a question for you both. Does your older sibling have the same name as your parent?”

That seemed to shock them both. 

“Uh.. Well- No.”

“No?” Finally

“Yeah. His name is Sainath.”

“Has he ever had a name change?”

“I don’t think so. I’ll ask.” As Karkat pulled out his phone, Eridan turned to Terezi.

“What about you, Pyrope?”

“Hm? Oh yeah they definitely have the same name. Everyone calls her Pyrope though- or Redglare because of the glare she gives from behind her glasses when she wins her trial.” 

Terezi’s mother was a prosecution lawyer who had a 99% track record for putting away everyone, including innocent people. He wasn’t surprised people found her scary. 

Karkat frowned, deeper than usual as he looked back up at the two. 

“He has-”

“He- Oh for fucks sake. What was his name before that?”

“He won’t tell me.”

“What.” Now was Eridan’s turn to frown. He wouldn’t tell him? Okay this was getting downright spooky, now. 

“He won’t tell me- What’s so secretive that he won’t tell me something like his old name? He’s usually so open about his past- And I know he’s cis because of the amount of research he put into this stuff for me so it’s not a dead name.”

“This is so odd.”

“Yeah it is.”

“No I mean- of our group, Sollux is the only one completely sure his dad and his brother never had the same name. Fef, Equius, Kanaya, and Aradia’s parents have the same name as their older siblings- Nep, Gam, Vriska, and now Terezi’s parents all have the same name as their oldest kid but they all go by another name. Then there’s Tav who’s dad was called Rufioh but then he changed it to something else, and my dad who named Cronus after his middle name. And then you- your dad had a name change but refuses to tell you his old name for no reason? Something is going on.”

Karkat took a moment to ponder, staring blankly at his phone as his eyes shifted back and forth between different thoughts in his head. It was just as he opened his mouth to speak again that Terezi spoke too.

“It’s just a coincidence”

“All that? There’s no way it can be a coincidence.”

“I agree with Eridan on this one. It’s not a coincidence.” Karkat turned to Eridan. “We have to investigate this further. There’s got to be a reason behind it.” 

Eridan nodded, about to respond when the teacher covering the club walked in and brought them all to attention. The two glanced over, then went back to talking, this time in hushed voices. 

“Where should we start?”

“Well first things first, we find out what my dad’s old name was. He grew up here so the records should have it in the town archives.” 

Eridan shuddered. He hated it down there. “Alright. Let’s.. Meet up at the library. Tomorrow at lets say 10?”

“Make it 9. Kankri wakes up early.” 

Eridan nodded in agreement to their plans, turning back to face the teacher as she assigned today’s topic.

~~~~~~ 

Eridan and Karkat walked out of the school building together, making their way towards the gates in a heated discussion about one of the opinions of a fellow club member who once again brought politics into something as simple as a healthy food in schools discussion. They were both on the same page, roasting the fuck out of the guy, when a message came through from Sollux of all people on Eridan’s phone.

_’hey diip2hit. turn2 out my dad ha2 had hii2 name changed.’_

_‘Wwhat??’_

_‘Yeah. ii wanted to check when ii got home. 2iince everything 2eemed 2o fii2hy. Do wiith that iinfo what you wiill’_

Eridan stared at the messages, Sollux’s new findings finally getting it to sink in that there was something freaky going on. He glanced up at Karkat, who was reading over his shoulder, then went back to his texts. 

_’Wwhat wwas his name before?’_

__There was a long pause __

_‘He’2 refu2iing to tell me’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I am British, therefore I don't know much about American schools, but I tried to make it as close as possible while still making it interesting. Also- having the same schedule every day seems like it would really suck. I feel sorry for you guys, and not just about _that_ if you get what I mean. ¬_¬ 
> 
> Also bc I'm using a specific art as my Aradia reference but with a few changes instead of my brain like the others, here's the link to the art I've stared at for like 4 hours now <https://tinyurl.com/AradiaRefs>

**Author's Note:**

> All comments and kudos welcome, even if it's just a keysmash. It motivates me to keep writing ^^   
> ~~I'll even accept theories for what will happen bc those are interesting~~


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